When is the right time to upskill your team?
I’ve been a learning and development specialist for around 20 years, although I believe it’s been a role I’ve gravitated towards all my working life. Early in my career, when I worked as a receptionist, I used to support and guide the new recruits joining our team. I’d show them around, make sure they knew where everything was, get them set up on our systems and be there to answer their questions. This was also the case when I progressed to Team Leader, Head of Department and Hotel Manager.
A tale of personal development success
When I joined a hotel as Head of Department, there was a temp in my team covering someone’s maternity leave. She was fabulous, efficient and effective at everything she did. When the permanent colleague returned from maternity, I was delighted to be able to keep the temp within my team. Every six months, when we chatted during her performance reviews, I realised she would soon be able to do my job. It became my ambition to support her so that she would be able to take my role, because I recognised her potential and I had ambitions to progress in my own role.
We spoke openly about taking slow and small steps in the right direction, focusing on one area every six months. She was uncertain at first but her confidence soon began to grow and she was up for the next challenge. When the time was right, I revealed my vision to her. After a mini wobble, she eventually saw the potential that I’d seen all those months ago. She ended up taking my job (and was actually better at it than I was!). It felt great because she clearly loved her job. I realised I’d taken the right approach to upgrading her skills. In turn, I also benefited by progressing into a hotel management role.
Everyone has the potential to grow and develop
Senior leaders frequently take huge amounts of time to research, test and trial new products or equipment. Yet these things only do the one thing they are programmed to. People are multi-skilled and multi-faceted. This is why I believe leaders should spend as much time and effort developing their people.
To develop your team and identify their training needs, you need to spend time with them. Focus on their ambitions. Every individual has the potential to grow and develop into a more senior role or to upskill and move into a new area.
Training should come before promotion
I’ve worked with a lot of great people who are confident and competent in their role. They’re valued by the organisation they work for and leaders want to reward their development. As in my own story, sometimes the way to provide reward is through promotion, where the expert becomes the team leader or supervisor.
Promotion works for a few, but not for everyone. Becoming an expert in your field does not automatically make you a natural leader. Leading a team requires a totally different skill set; moving from being able to do the job well to motivating others to do the job well. This is why it’s so important to set new leaders up for success by upskilling them in advance of their promotion.
Identify development needs and source the right training
A good starting point for leaders is to understand what skills, knowledge and behaviours you need within your team to meet the needs of your customers. Customer tastes, expectations and needs change so you need to be able to flex your team to meet them. Once you understand where the gaps are, look within the business to see who might be interested, keen and motivated to upskill.
Sourcing diverse training and development interventions has always been a task I find really satisfying. My teams and their managers always returned from training feeling enthused and grateful for the programmes they had attended.
Internally, you might find suitable training and development through an expert who’s willing to share their knowledge and skills. If you choose this option, remember being an expert doesn’t necessarily make you a good trainer, coach or facilitator.
Alternatively, you can look to resources outside of your business to assist the colleague into their new role. This might take the form of a qualification, workshop, webinar, reading materials, independent research, coaching or mentoring, just to name a few. If you’d like any help with sourcing appropriate training, please get in touch. With the move towards online training due to Covid-19, development opportunities are now more accessible than ever before. Our own interactive people development programmes are available for online delivery.
Give the person time to embed their skills
Whichever option you choose, give your colleague time to practise their new found skills so they can improve and become more confident before taking the next step. Ideally, you will check in with them and review progress as part of regular performance management discussions.
The right time to upskill your team is here and now! Upgrading skills takes time and colleagues will need help and guidance to reach their goal, but the long-term benefits to the individual and organisation will be tangible.